New Year's Eve
by Thisishowitends
Summary: Inspired by tonight's episode where Caleb is feeling a little under the weather on New Year's Eve and he finally meets Taylor again. Cue sick!Caleb.


Authors note: Inspired by tonight's episode where Caleb is feeling a little under the weather on New Year's Eve and he finally meets Taylor again. Cue sick!Caleb.

When he had entered the pub with Max and Lofty after their shifts had finished, he had full intention of following out his word. He wasn't going to stay any second longer than a minute past midnight once they had all seen in the New Year in together. He was feeling awful. The last couple of hours of his shift had been a struggle. Caleb was looking forward to nothing more than getting into bed and, hopefully, sleeping away whatever horrid illness he had caught.

However that wasn't to be the case. No sooner had he had finished agreeing with Max about how terrible he looked and felt, he had turned round and found Taylor sitting a few seats away from him at the bar, looking gorgeous as ever. Fortunately she hadn't heard their conversation and had invited him to join her for drinks.

Throughout the night, on the lead up to the New Year, they both sat together in a quiet corner drinking and chatting. Caleb was able to ignore the thumbing headache, aching muscles and mild fever as he sat across from Taylor, listening to her laugh and talk. No woman had ever been able to turn him into a bumbling 'Hugh Grant', as she had put it. But she had. She was also the only person he had ever kissed at midnight on New Year's.

Caleb was thankful for the low lighting in the pub. The glare of the hospital lights had only highlighted how terrible he looked and felt. It was nearing one am, a full fifty-four minutes longer than he had promised he would stay, to Max and Lofty earlier. However his plans had changed as soon as he had seen Taylor sitting at the bar. He didn't want to cut short their meeting because he was feeling a little under the weather. What man would want to leave a stunning blonde at a bar to go home to bed alone to just sleep? He certainly didn't.

He had just ducked into the gents. The reality of not feeling too good had finally gotten too much and he found himself throwing up in a cubicle, thankful that nobody else was around to witness. It wouldn't be the first and final time he would find himself being sick in the toilets of a pub. However this was a first, being sober whilst doing so. Assured that he wouldn't be throwing up anymore Doctor Knight made his way out of the cubicle and towards the sinks. He washed his mouth out and splashed cold water over his face, bracing his hands on the worktop as he dropped his chin to his chest and closed his eyes.

Taylor could not see him in this state.

Caleb grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and dried his face. He then patted down his pockets looking for a piece of gum. Successful on his search, he popped the minty refreshment into his mouth and looked at himself in the mirror. The lighting in the gents was harsher than in the pub. He looked pale and clammy, dark circles under his eyes. Max had every right to tell him he looked like shit earlier, if this is what he had looked like whilst on shift. Caleb cleared his throat beginning to feel a sore throat beginning and a cough emerging. He couldn't believe that he was seeing Taylor again like this.

"Are you alright?" Taylor questioned him as soon as he arrived back at the table they had been occupying. She had been joined by Rita and Tess whilst she had been waiting for him to return.

Caleb smiled back at her. "Yeah course, I'm fine!" He pulled out his chair and sat down beside her, across from Tess who was looking at him rather sympathetically. "Shall I get another round in?"

"No." Taylor said, making Caleb stop as he had gone to fish out his wallet from his back jeans pocket.

"W-wh- Sorry?" Caleb faltered. He hadn't managed to screw things up with Taylor had he? Everything had been going alright all night he had thought.

"You need to go home Caleb." Tess told him from across the table.

"You do. You're clearly not feeling well at all. You've been trying all night to hide it." Taylor finally explained her sudden disinterest in having another drink with him. She hadn't missed the tired, fevered eyes, the pale appearance and the heat radiating from him.

"It's just a-." Cal started. He had thought he had managed to keep it from her.

"Typical male." Rita teased, cutting him off short. "You're to go home and get some rest. You look dreadful."

"Thanks Rita." Caleb said sarcastically, causing the blonde nurse to smile back at him.

"Come on." Taylor said. The young woman stood, picking up her coat as she did so and shrugging it on over her sparkly black dress. "I'm taking you home- And not like that!" She exclaimed when she caught a glint in his eye that wasn't down to the fever that he was harbouring.

"It's fine, really. I can get myself home. I don't want to spoil your night." Cal told her as he too stood and pulled on his jacket, not realising how cold he had been until he had gotten it on.

"Don't be daft." Taylor argued. Her bag was now in her hand and faux fur cream scar was draped round her neck. She had been having a good time and making sure Cal got home alright wasn't going to spoil it.

"Cal just do as she says." Tess advised him, light heartedly. "You look dreadful."

Twenty minutes later, Taylor and Cal were climbing out of a taxi and entering the apartment building where he lived. Luckily the lift was already waiting for them on the ground floor as they hoped in and tapped the fifth floor button. It was only then, in the harsh light of the lift did Taylor notice exactly how bad Caleb was feeling. He had slumped himself up right in the far corner, his head tilted so his face rested against the cold metal of the lift with his eye closed. Her heart melted at how pitiful he looked to her. There was no way she could just get him to his apartment and just leave him. He needed taking care of, something which he had neglected to do himself.

"Come on you." Taylor smiled, slipping her hand in his making him jump a little. Before escorting him out of the lift once the doors opened.

He unlocked the door to his and Ethan's apartment, chucking his keys on the side making a loud clatter as they landed.

"Can I get you a tea or coffee?" He asked Taylor already heading towards the kitchen to the left.

The young blonde rolled her eyes. She crept up behind him, placing her hands on his hips and steering him in the opposite direction towards the sofa. "Sit down, before you fall down and take it easy." She ordered. "I'll make us something. Have you taken anything for your fever?"

Caleb shook his head as he dropped down on the sofa, his body all of sudden feeling too heavy.

"Mmm, thought just as much. Doctors always make the worst patients." Taylor commented as she busied herself in the kitchen.

Caleb was given something to ease his headache and fever, as well as a hot drink to soothe his sore throat. No sooner had he finished his tea he exploded into a coughing fit, hunching over on the sofa while Taylor rubbed his back.

"Whatever is going on?" Ethan questioned, making Taylor jump as he entered the living room. He was stood in a plain white t-shirt and shorts as he pulled a dressing down on over his shoulders.

"Sorry if we woke you." Taylor apologised recognising him from the hospital and putting together that he was Ethan, Caleb's brother who he had mentioned on a few occasions.

"No, no it's fine." Ethan stammered.

"Caleb here, isn't feeling too great." Taylor explained, still rubbing the older man's back soothingly as the odd cough escaped his lips. "Recons it's nothing . . ."

Ethan padded across the short space between them and sat the other side of Caleb, placing a hand on his brother's forehead. "Have you taken his temperature?"

The young woman nodded her head. "I did. It's 100.1F." She told him. "Don't worry, I've already given him something to bring it down. He's just got that awful virus that's been going around just lately."

"Yeah, I'm alright." Cal piped up, moving to lean back against the sofa they were all sat on.

"You do look dreadful!"

"Why does everyone keep saying that!" Doctor huffed.

"It's because you do. Now come on, let's get you to bed." Taylor ordered.

"Kinda like you bossing me around." Caleb tried to flirt before he started coughing again.

"Come on you."

"If there's anything I can help with just give us a shout." Ethan offered as they all got up. It was highly unusual to see his older brother unwell. He had always seemed immune to illness. It was always him that had gotten ill out of the two, catching every sickness bug going around.

"Thanks."

It was five am when Caleb woke up with another coughing fit. He had been lying in bed, curled up next to a sleeping Taylor who had ditched the sparkly black party dressed and swapped it for one of his shirts, when he woke unable to clear his throat. He had tried to clear his throat quietly, not wanting to wake Taylor up. They hadn't gotten to sleep that long ago and she looked so peaceful next to him. Unfortunately, trying to clear his throat quietly had turned into another coughing fit, waking her up anyway.

"You alright?" She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. He had rolled on to his back and pulled himself up slightly with one arm as he coughed rattling his chest and causing sharp shoots of pain.

He tried to nod his head unable to form any words at that point.

"I'll go get you a glass of water." She said panicking slightly by the lack colour in his lips.

The blonde woman jumped out of bed and ran towards the kitchen in search for a glass to fill with water, hoping it would help him stop coughing. She squeaked in alarm when she ran straight into Ethan in the short hallway outside.

"Sorry!" They both exclaimed.

"I'm just getting your brother some water. He can't stop coughing. His lips have started turning blue." She explained as she continued on into the kitchen. She found a glass drying on the rack and pulled it off, filling it half with water.

"Blue?!" Ethan questioned alarmed.

"Yes, blue." She confirmed, pushing past him once again before going back into Cal's bedroom.

Thankfully he his coughing fit had eased slightly when she joined him. He took the offered glass of water from Taylor and carefully drank it. Relishing the relief it gave his sore throat, as he swallowed the ice cold water. A few seconds after he put down the empty glass on his side table, Ethan appeared with a stethoscope in his hand.

"I'm just going to check you over before I leave for work." He told his older brother. He was only going to worry senseless at work if he didn't.

Caleb could only roll his eyes at flinch as the cold metal of his brother's stethoscope touched the bare skin on his back.

"You seem to be all clear, nothing to worry about." Ethan said after a few moments of silence as he checked his brother's chest.

"Like I've said, it's just that stupid virus that's been going around." Cal sighed, crashing back on the pillows behind him.

"Make sure you take plenty of medication for your temperature and-."

"Yes! I've got it. I am Doctor I do know what to do." Caleb interrupted. He wasn't used to Ethan being so kind to him. "I'll dose up on ibuprofen and rest up before I'm due in at ten."

"Oh no!" Ethan exclaimed. "You've got to be kidding me if you think you're going into work later. I'm going in now and I'm letting Connie know that you're not in at all until you're a 100% better."

"Nib-."

"No. For once be sensible Cal."

The older brother didn't get a chance to argue anymore before Ethan left the room.

"He's right. You're not going into today." Taylor told him where she sat knelt at middle of the bed by his hip. "But . . . you get to stay here, with me . . . while I play nurse."

If his temperature hadn't made him feel uncomfortably hot, Taylor offering to play nurse as she sat on his bed in one of button up shirts certainly did.

When Ethan returned home after a ten hour shift at Holby E.D, the first thing he did was pop his head round the door of his brother's bedroom to check if he was doing okay. The sight he saw certainly affirmed that Cal was doing just fine, even if he wasn't feeling a hundred percent just yet. The young doctor was asleep in his bed using Taylor's stomach as a pillow, with one arm slung around her hips as he held her close. The young woman was watching a cooking program on the T.V in the corner, but held up a finger to her lips when she saw Ethan's head round the door. A few empty glasses had joined the other glass on the side table next to Cal's bed, as well as an empty ibuprofen packet and some half eaten toast. He was being well looked after.

Author's note: I do not own any of the characters etc. They all belong to BBC. However I would like feedback etc! Would be ever so grateful!


End file.
